I'm not making this up about having a growth on my tongue that needs to be biopsied and a goiter the size of an apple
September 30, 2018
My wife said it looked kinky when my ear, nose and throat doctor stuck about a twelve inch video cable up my nose and ran it down to my throat. It was a follow-up on the findings from a CAT scan and angiogram of my brain that I had last week.
Those tests were ordered after it was found that I have a blockage in my two carotid arteries, one is 100 percent blocked and the other, it was found, was 20 percent. As part of this, the imaging tests showed that I had a growth on the base of my tongue and in the neighborhood of that I had a goiter the size of an apple.
After talking about any throat symptoms I had, she pulled out the cable with a small video monitor on the end. It felt like a long worm crawling down the inside front of my face. It wasn't painful, but it felt weird, even though it brought some tears to my eyes.
Next step is surgery and getting the okay for a biopsy of the troubled part of my tongue. Because of my plugged carotids, I need to get my vascular doctor to okay my staying off blood thinners for a week and I have to get my primary care doctor to give his okay.
In the past year, I was smiling that I was content with my vision problems brought on by glaucoma and by a cornea that had to be transplanted.
What does all this mean? I'm not sure. Some of it could be just a normal part of aging with all this happening on a compressed schedule.
My prayer life has stepped up in the past two weeks for sure. I'm counting on God hearing those prayers for peace and for healing in all this. I know that he's there and I'm constantly reminding myself that he will be my shield.
What do you do when you've been bombarded with a bucketful of curve balls. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I talk to him and ask him for peace. How's that working? My Apple watch shows my Beats Per Minute right now being high as I write this.
My friend Ken and I recently read Philip Yancey's book Disappointment With God where he gets into Job and how he reacted to a whole bunch of really nasty stuff in his life. I pray that I can learn from his reaction.
In the past two days, I've found myself looking at people's tongues more and more. And I've looked at YouTube videos of surgeries where biopsies of the tongue are taken.
I am counting on being able to sense His presence as my ailment list gets longer.